US, European Union To Commit To End Disputes, Call For Progress On Covid Study

US-EU summit: A draft communique commits to ending a long-running dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers before July 11.

The European Union and the United States are set to commit at a summit in Brussels next week to end their transatlantic metals and aircraft trade disputes and call for progress on a new study into the origins of COVID-19, according to a draft communique. The seven-page draft, seen by Reuters, aims to show concrete results of the "new dawn" hailed by EU leaders when US President Joe Biden took over from Donald Trump in January. The draft, which was discussed by EU ambassadors on Wednesday, commits to ending a long-running dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers before July 11, and setting a December 1 deadline to end punitive tariffs related to a steel and aluminum trade dispute. Despite pressure by US steel industry groups to keep the "Section 232" national security tariffs imposed by Trump, the draft said: "We commit to work towards lifting before 1 December 2021 all additional/punitive tariffs on both sides linked to our steel and aluminum dispute."